Press Release

The erotic has often been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with it’s opposite, the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling.The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognized power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves……This is one reason why the erotic is so feared, and so often relegated to the bedroom alone, when it is recognized at all. For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy which we know ourselves to be capable of. Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence, forcing us to evaluate those aspects honestly in terms of their relative meaning within our lives.

-Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic: Erotic as Power” from the collection of essays Sister Outsider published 1984

Nadia Ayari’s work focuses on political landscapes. She has had solo projects at The Third Line, Dubai, Monya Rowe, New York and Luce Gallery, Turin, and has participated in Art Dubai Projects, the Cairo Biennale and the Thessaloniki Biennale. Her paintings have also been exhibited in group shows at Gallery Diet, Miami, Monica DeCardenas, Zuoz and Saatchi Gallery, London among other venues.

Irena Jurek (born 1982, Krakow, Poland) lives and works in New York, NY. She received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Denny Gallery, New York, New York; Zürcher Gallery - If you’re accidentally not included don’t worry about it, curated by Peter Saul, Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY; Minotaur, Los Angeles; Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY; 247365, Brooklyn, NY, and throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has received press coverage in the New York Times, Le Figaroscope, Telerama, Blouin ArtInfo, and numerous other publications. Recently she illustrated a previously unpublished Kafka story for Gigantic magazine. Additionally, she has written extensively about art for Art F City, New York Arts Magazine, and Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art.

Hein Koh, born in Jersey City, NJ is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a dual B.A. in Studio Art and Psychology, and received her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale. She is a recipient of a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Grant, and an alum of the Artists in the Marketplace program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, which culminated in a catalogued exhibition at the museum in 2011. Her work has been reviewed and/or featured in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Huffington Post, amongst other publications. She has also taught and/or lectured at Tyler School of Art, Dartmouth College, Maryland Institute College of Art, and the School of Visual Arts.

Emma Kohlmann was born in the Bronx, lives and works in Western Massachusetts. Kohlmann mostly works in watercolor and drawing. She attended Hampshire College where she primarily focused on drawing, philosophy and aesthetics. She has self-published numerous of her own zines, in addition to facilitating and collaborating with several artists in her community. She has recently exhibited in Miami, Toronto, and Berlin.

Rebecca Morgan is from central Pennsylvania, and her paintings, drawings, and ceramics emanate from stereotypes of rural Appalachia. Humorous, benevolent, and savage at turns, her characters touch on truths about poverty, indulgence, and off-the-grid living, as well as idealizations of uncultured country life. As an on-and-off-again New Yorker, Morgan represents the ultimate insider/outsider point-of view, embracing and critically distancing herself from her origins. Rebecca Morgan received her MFA from Pratt Institute, NY. Press for her work includes The New York Times,Time Out New York, ARTnews, The Huffington Post, Paper Magazine, Art F City, Blouin Artinfo, Juxtapoz Magazine and Artnet among others. She is the recipient of a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, a Vermont Studio Center full fellowship, and the George Rickey Residency at Yaddo. She has exhibited at Invisible- Exports, Gasser Grunert Gallery, NY, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, Salon Zurcher, Paris, Untitled Art Fair, Miami and Spring/Break, New York, NY, among others. She is represented by Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York.Tamara Santibañez is a visual and tattoo artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Pratt Institute. Her recent work explores the symbolic weight and emotional relationships of inanimate objects.

Jennifer Sullivan (b. 1978) is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist. Solo exhibitions include Big Girl Paintings, Emma Gray HQ at 5 Car Garage, Los Angeles, CA (2014), Adult Movie, Las Cienegas Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2011), and One-Week Walden, Freight + Volume, New York, NY (2010). Sullivan has also exhibited and performed in exhibitions at the David Lewis Gallery, PS1, Essex Flowers, Pablo's Birthday, 247365, Klaus Von Nichtsaggend, and Arthouse. Awards include a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center, and residencies at Skowhegan, Ox-Bow, and Yaddo. Her work has been reviewed in the NY Times, Artforum.com, and Art Papers, and her videos are included in the Geisel Library collection at the University of California in San Diego. She has forthcoming solo exhibitions scheduled in 2015 at Arts + Leisure, New York, NY and Emma Gray HQ at 5 Car Garage, Los Angeles, CAEvie Falci is an artist and curator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Recent solo shows have included Voids and Invocations at the Lodge Gallery, New York, NY (2015) and Everything All Night at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY (2013). Recent group exhibitions have included Ornamenting Crime at Gallery Zurcher, New York, NY, The Musical Box at Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY, and Jewels at Norte More in collaboration with Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY.